'Bring Your Bible to School Day': Over 300,000 Students to Join Nationwide Religious Freedom Movement
More than 300,000 students are planning to take their copies of the Good Book with them to school on Thursday in an observance known as "Bring Your Bible to School Day."
Youths across the United States will take Bibles to school as a show of evangelism and expression of religious freedom.
The national event is sponsored by the Colorado Springs, Colorado-based Focus on the Family, a socially conservative group founded by author and radio personality Dr. James Dobson.
Get Our Latest News for FREE
Jim Daly, president of Focus on the Family, told The Christian Post that this is the third year that his organization is organizing this event, which has seen "inspiring" growth in participation.
"In 2014, around 8,000 students participated. But in 2015, that number exploded to more than 155,000 students from every state in the nation," said Daly.
"It's fun to see second-year and third-year participants — such as [a student named] Carson, from Indiana, who started a Bible Club at his school last year."
Daly also told CP that religious freedom is a key component of the observance, calling it "a nationwide, religious-freedom initiative for students from kindergarten to college."
"On this day, they celebrate religious freedom and share God's hope by taking a simple action — bringing their Bibles to school and talking about it with friends before and after class," continued Daly.
"Unfortunately, too many schools are sending the message that Christian kids need to hide their faith. So I think the exponential response among youth has do to with the fact that it's something positive, redemptive, and tangible that Christian students can easily do in their schools to celebrate their faith — and to visibly see that they are joined by thousands nationwide."
For this year's observance, signing up on the Bring Your Bible to School Day website includes the chance to win tickets to a Newsboys concert in Dallas.
When asked by CP what he hoped people took away from the Thursday observance, Daly replied that he wanted "students to feel empowered to exercise their religious liberties, and to graciously and winsomely live out their faith."
"In many of the news stories we've read about students who have been forbidden from reading their Bibles or praying privately at school, it's quite possible that the administrators involved simply thought they were upholding the law," said Daly.
"In reality, though, students have every right to express their faith in public school as long as they are not disrupting instruction time. An event like this might actually help school administrators breathe a sigh of relief because they won't feel like they have to police the students all the time when it comes to religious liberty issues."
